The present invention is related to safety devices. In particular, the present invention is a safety device for use in fluid transfer systems.
A wide variety of fluid materials are transferred through flexible hoses. These materials include extremely hazardous gases and liquids. Each year, hundreds of lives are lost and millions of dollars in property damage occurs due to the unintentional combining of unsuitable or incompatible gases and liquids. This type of accident is common to virtually all industries which handle toxic, flammable, or otherwise hazardous liquids or gases.
For example, recently a commercial aircraft was accidentally fueled with the wrong jet fuel. As a result, just after take-off, the airplane engines failed and the plane crashed, killing several people. In another example, a young mother was accidentally suffocated to death shortly after giving birth when an oxygen line was inadvertantly connected to an anesthesia gas line. In still another example, eight persons died and 45 persons were injured when a supply truck accidentally pumped the wrong substance into a plant storage tank, which resulted in toxic vapors spreading throughout the plant. Similar accidents continue to occur at an alarming rate.
At the present time, efforts to avoid these types of accidents in flexible hose material transfers generally have been ineffective. In some cases, special threading, color coding, labeling, sizing or the like have been attempted. In many cases, however, these attempts have been easily avoided or circumvented by the personnel making the hose connections. In any case, these systems have found only limited use at the present time.
In electrical systems, a standardization of plugs, voltages, amperages, frequencies, and the like have provided safety against unintentional improper connection of incompatible electrical circuits, components, or lines. Similar standardization in fluidic systems, however, has heretofore been unavailable or unused.